We crossed the Atchafalaya by a novel bridge constructed of steamboats. This, too, was Bailey's work. He anchored them side by side, the bows level with each other, and placed planks across them. The whole army, with its baggage-wagons and artillery, crossed safely and rapidly. A steam-whistle sounded, and in ten minutes the bridge had disappeared, and every boat was under full headway to its destination.
The writer's connection with the Department of the Gulf now ceased for a year. He obtained leave of absence, and went North. But he had scarcely arrived there when Early made his daring march upon Washington. My leave was revoked, and I was ordered to report to Major-general Gillmore. For a year I remained in Virginia, most of the time in Norfolk, for Gillmore had been thrown from his horse, and was unable to take the field in command of the Nineteenth Army Corps, as had been intended, and I had been assigned to a different duty. Early in the spring of 1865, on application of Brigadier-general T. W. Sherman, I was ordered again to New Orleans.
[CHAPTER IX.]
Visit to Grant's Head-quarters.—His Anecdotes of Army Life.—Banks relieved.—Canby in Command.—Bailey at Mobile.—Death of Bailey.—Canby as a Civil Governor.—Confiscated Property.—Proposes to rebuild Levees.—Is stopped by Sheridan.—Canby appeals.—Is sustained, but too late.—Levees destroyed by Floods.—Conflict of Jurisdiction.—Action of President Johnson.—Sheridan abolishes Canby's Provost Marshal's Department.—Canby asks to be recalled.—Is ordered to Washington.—To Galveston.—To Richmond.—To Charleston.—Is murdered by the Modocs.—His Character.
Shortly after my arrival at the North, I paid a visit of a few days to Colonel Badeau at Grant's head-quarters at City Point. Badeau had been with me on Sherman's staff. I staid at head-quarters in a tent reserved for guests, and messed with the general and his staff. Grant has the reputation of being a taciturn man, and he is generally so. But when seated on a summer's evening under the awning in front of his tent with his staff, and, perhaps, a few friends about him, he took his share of the conversation. He was full of anecdote, especially of army life. He talked very freely, not hesitating to express his opinions of men and things. Grant contended that no commanding officer could succeed in the long run, if he were not an honest and an honorable man. He did not care what were his talents, he was sure to come to grief, and injure the cause sooner or later. But Butler took different ground. He held that he could appoint clever and energetic officers to command, and benefit by their talents, while he could prevent their dishonesty from injuring the cause. Grant was undoubtedly right, and Butler wrong.
One evening, as we sat before his tent, Grant observed that he had that day sent orders to remove a certain general from high command in the West. I expressed my surprise, and said that I had always understood, and from army men too, that the officer in question was one of the best of our volunteer generals. Grant took his cigar from his mouth, and remarked, in his quiet way, "He's too much mixed up with cotton."
Politics makes strange bed-fellows. What a pity that President Grant was unable to carry into his civil appointments the same admirable principle upon which General Grant acted so inflexibly and so successfully in his military appointments! The officer whom he removed from command as "too much mixed up with cotton" he soon after appointed, under strong party pressure, to high civil office.
On my return to New Orleans, I found that Banks had been relieved, and Canby now commanded the Department of the Gulf. He was absent, engaged in the campaign against Mobile, which resulted in the capture of that city. Here Bailey again distinguished himself. The bay was strewed with torpedoes. Bailey had no fear of torpedoes. He told me that he had often navigated the Upper Mississippi when enormous cakes of ice, swept along by the rapid current, threatened to destroy the boat, but that it was easy enough by some mechanical contrivance to avoid them. He thought that torpedoes might be treated in the same way. He showed his faith by his works. He took the quartermaster's boats up without accident. The navy followed his lead, and safely. But the Admiral, changing his mind, ordered some of the boats back. In backing down, two were blown up and sunk.